Maria Sharapova has no fear of flying

When you are the world's most popular female tennis player, it's hard to get away from your sport, even when you are checked into a reclusive resort in Costa Rica. Maria Sharapova had a blast during her two-week break in November and for a few days there, tennis went right out of her head

"Like that," she said, snapping her fingers.

Sharapova and her best friend spent 10 days sunning, lounging and eating, but also got daring. One day, she went swinging through the jungle.

"At one point we were 400 meters in the air, going 40 mph, on a skinny little rope," she said.

Imagine that: the $25 million-a-year earner and franchise player on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour risking a career which will like bring her another $300 million or so in the next decade just to get a few kicks.

But Sharapova is a teenager, and kids must get thrills once in while, future be dammed.

"I'm very adventurous," she said. " I'm pretty fearless at those things. Not really crazy things. I love to get an adrenaline rush. There's only so much sitting at the beach you can do. It's so fun. You see the trees and the waterfalls. So surreal. You're in a different planet when you do those kind of things. In a few hours you could be in a big city, but here you are in a jungle and you're doing something totally different."

Away from the hustle and bustle of the locker room, life was dreamlike during most of that trip, until the diva made a major error — hooking back into the real world with touch of a remote.

"I turned on ESPN," she said. " I saw live coverage of the Australian Open starts the 15th of January. That was the end of that. That was not a good TV experience for me. It was like, 'Who needs this?' "

Indeed. Sharapova said she's not ready to bungee jump this year, but she'll have to take substantial leap if she's going to win her first Australian Open title. She barely survived her first round match due to brutal heat and even in her 6-3, 6-1 victory over Tatiana Garbin in the third round on Saturday, she was pretty streaky.

The top seed plays the winner of the match between Serbian upstart Ana Ivanovic and Russian grinder Vera Zvonareva, a winnable match for sure, but not one where she can afford to get off to slow start and play for more than two hours. She's on Kim Clijsters' half of the draw and the Belgian is super-motivated to win her second Slam title in her last year on tour. Clijsters has beaten Sharapova four of six times and also took her out at a pre Australian Open exhibition. She's the type of player who troubles Sharapova the most; a tireless defense to offense player who does a great job at running down the Russian's laser shots.

Sharapova must be in prime form to win that match and not be coming off a couple of brutally long contests where she was erratic. The 2006 U.S. Open champion knows what it takes to win a Slam, which is that once you get to the second week, you have to unleash your warrior side in every contest.

"With every single match you know it's going to get tougher and you know that you have to improve," she said. "It's not a matter of thinking about, 'It's the second week, here we go, now you really have to step it up.' Obviously that's normal. That's just part of it. It's only going to get tougher from here. It's just about trying to focus on those little things that you think you can still improve to get you even better."

The tall free-swinger has done well Down Under, but has never been able to completely impose herself. Two years ago, she held three match points in the semifinals against Serena Williams and was eventually out toughed. Last year, Sharapova went toe-to-toe with her nemesis Justine Henin-Hardenne and lost her legs late in the third set.

This year, she appears to be physically stronger, but if the severe heat returns to Melbourne, she'll be seriously tested. The willowy Sharapova may appear on the outside to be the perfect model for a tanning salon, but her complexion reacts badly to intense heat. In her torturous first round win over Camille Pin, she looked like a well-worn sponge that had all of its water squeezed out of it.

Sharapova has been the tour's most accomplished hardcourt player since last March, but most of her major crowns were won in the United States on a slightly different surface than the one on which she grew up. But she says that she's enamored with the Australian Open's rubbery Rebound Ace, as she doesn't have to bend as low to drive the ball.

"I actually think it suits my game a little bit, 'cause the bounce comes up a little higher," she said. "I can get a good hit on it. It's definitely not really fast, but that's not really a concern for me because I like to play on those kinds of courts."

With top ranked Henin-Hardenne skipping the tournament due the emotional fallout from to her separation from her husband, Sharapova has a shot at regaining the No. 1 ranking here. If she wins this tournament she'll also send up a bright flair that will signal that she's ready to become a dominant player. She's already a great player, but has yet to put her foot firmly on the neck of the rest of the tour.

With a highly aggressive and well-thought-out attack on this frightening jungle of field, Sharapova could swing her way into that position in a weeks time.

"I don't think I'm nowhere as good as I can be playing,' she said. "I hope that's yet to come."